Winter preparations from onions - delicious recipes

How to prepare onions for the winter

The best harvesting methods:

• pickling;
• drying;
• pickling.

Some housewives freeze green feathers or ripe turnips , after cutting them into rings or half rings.

Advice! This type of onion is used for preparing hot dishes: it acquires softness and characteristic aroma only after heat treatment. Thawed rings should not be stored or re-cooled.

Pickling

The “laziest” way is to pickle vegetables in regular 9% vinegar . Spices are often added to marinades to improve the taste of the product.

It is advisable to immediately decide where the onion will be used : vinegar and a little red pepper are added to the kebab version; for preparing poultry and salads, the rings are marinated in balsamic vinegar to give them a piquant sweet and sour taste. To get a crispy and juicy preparation, cherry or currant leaves are added to the jar, as when pickling cucumbers.

General rules:

• turnips are blanched to remove excess bitterness;
• cut into rings, half rings or cubes;
• fold tightly into prepared containers (clean and dry);
• pour marinade;
• sterilized.

Small onions are pickled whole.

Drying

The options for such onion preparations are varied : it is dried in various devices and simply in the air, after having been washed and blotted with a paper towel.

Many housewives season the cuts with salt, and some dry them without spices and seasonings . By mixing the finished product with other dried vegetables and herbs, you get a flavorful mix directly when creating dishes.

Reference! When drying indoors, turn on ventilation, since fresh vegetables release a concentrated pungent odor that can be absorbed into surrounding objects.

Pickling

For the winter, green shoots of the vegetable are salted . They preserve the vitamin complex, color and taste as much as possible.

Only healthy and strong feathers without yellowness or signs of wilting are selected, finely chopped, mixed with plenty of salt and compacted tightly into jars.

Housewives less often practice salting small whole turnips.

Pickled onion

Pickling is one of the best ways to preserve the nutrients in this vegetable. This preparation allows you to preserve not only useful qualities, but also has an interesting taste. When marinated, it can be added to a variety of dishes without wasting time on preliminary preparation.

Three colors

Pickled onions can decorate any dish, especially if they are prepared for the winter in a non-standard way. The “Three Colors” recipe is very simple and does not require much time.

For this recipe we will need:

• 1 kg of onion;
• 1 liter of water;
• 100-150 g beets;
• a little turmeric;
• 1 tablespoon salt;
• 1 tablespoon sugar;
• half a glass of 9% vinegar;
• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil.

Cooking technology:

1. Scald small onions with boiling water and cut into rings or half rings.
2. To prepare the marinade, add salt, sugar and vinegar, and a small amount of sunflower oil to cold water.
3. Place the mixture in the first jar and fill it with the prepared marinade.
4. Add the beets cut into pieces into the second jar, then pour in the marinade.
5. In the third jar, sprinkle onion rings with turmeric and fill with marinade.

The jars need to be refrigerated for several hours so that the product marinates well. This preparation can be used the very next day. If you close the jars with nylon lids, then pickled onions in rings and half rings will be preserved all winter.

Rings

Recipe:

1. Rinse and sterilize jars thoroughly.
2. Selected onions are peeled, washed in cold water and cut into rings.
3. After placing the chopped onions in jars, pour boiling water and let it brew for 5-10 minutes.
4. After this, the water is drained, salt, sugar and spices are added to taste. For half a kilogram of onion add a tablespoon of sugar and salt. For flavor, add 1-2 cloves and a few black peppercorns. The resulting marinade is boiled for several minutes and again poured into jars.

It is better to store jars in a cool room or put them in the cellar for the winter. It is better to pickle onion rings at the end of summer or early autumn, before it is fresh and has not begun to deteriorate. This product is used in the preparation of both meat dishes and salads.

Whole heads

List of required products:

• 1 kg of onion;
• 1 pack of dry bay leaf;
• a little black pepper;
• a little clove;
• a little red pepper and tarragon (optional);
• 1 tablespoon salt;
• 1 tablespoon sugar;
• 1 liter of water.

Cooking technology:

1. Small onions are cleaned, balanced in boiling water for 1-2 minutes, and filled with cold water.
2. Place 2-3 bay leaves, a little black pepper and cloves at the bottom of a liter sterilized jar. You can also throw in red pepper and tarragon.
3. Fill the jar with prepared onions, add half a glass of vinegar and warm marinade. To prepare the marinade, add a tablespoon of salt and sugar to a liter of water. The resulting mixture is boiled for several minutes and cooled to room temperature.
4. Closed jars should be refrigerated for a day.

Pickled onions will be stored longer if they are rolled into jars after preliminary pasteurization for 5-10 minutes.

How to dry onions for the winter

with vitamins A, B1, C, iodine, potassium, phosphorus, fiber, and essential oils in winter Dishes made with it are aromatic and have a special taste.

Reference! Onions in this form contain a lot of carbohydrates, their calorie content is 208 kcal per 100 g.

To ensure uniform drying, the turnips are evenly chopped . The shape does not matter, the thickness of the slice is important - no more than 5 mm.

In the oven

Use an electric or gas oven. Drying time - more than 5 hours :

1. Place the slices on baking sheets lined with paper in an even layer.
2. The baking sheets are placed in a preheated oven.
3. The door is left ajar a few centimeters.
4. Stir the onions periodically.

In an electric dryer

One of the main advantages of this method: the turnips do not have to be finely chopped.

Hot air effectively dries large slices:

1. Randomly chopped vegetables are placed on the grill.
2. The thermostat is set to +55…+60°C.
3. To ensure uniform drying, the trays are periodically swapped.

The procedure takes from 5 to 7 hours.

Dried onions in an electric dryer Seasoning for soups, borscht, main courses

Outdoors

This is the longest drying: it takes 10–14 days . The time and quality of the finished product largely depend on weather conditions and the chosen location:

1. Choose a shaded and well-ventilated place, ideally under a canopy, so as not to hide the vegetables in the rain. In this case, air humidity during and after rain is taken into account: it prevents proper drying.
2. The chopped onions are laid out in an even layer on baking sheets, cardboard, sheets of white paper, or any flat surfaces covered with cotton cloth or paper.
3. As they dry, the slices are stirred periodically to provide everyone with access to fresh air.

other methods

Onions are dried efficiently and . Here it takes 1 hour. Green feathers are ready in 30 minutes.

The device is turned on at maximum speed, setting the temperature to +70°C.

How to choose the right jar

Before salting, the container is prepared in advance. Glass jars with a volume of 0.5 l or 1 l are suitable. They are washed with soda solution, doused with boiling water, and sterilized in the oven for 15 minutes. To heat treat small jars, use a microwave or double boiler.

Plastic containers are no less convenient devices; you just need to wash them, rinse them with boiling water and dry them.

Preparation of containers

Before preservation, all containers must be thoroughly washed with soda solution, dried and placed in a preheated oven. Thus, the containers are kept for about 20 minutes. You can also use a double boiler (for small jars) or a microwave. Already closed containers are pasteurized in a water bath.

Pickling recipes

To do this, they use the feathers themselves and salt . Pepper, other herbs and spices are added for piquancy.

Simple pickling

Take 1 kg of crushed feathers and 100 g of coarse salt. The ingredients are mixed and placed tightly in a clean container. Sprinkle a layer of salt on top.

Reference! To remove the bitterness from the feathers, they are doused with boiling water.

Pickling with herbs

For the mix you will need:

• onion feathers - 0.5 kg;
• cilantro - 0.5 kg;
• dill - 0.4 kg;
• parsley - 0.3 kg;
• salt - 0.2 kg.

Preparation:

1. The greens are sorted, washed, cut.
2. Immerse in salted water for 10 minutes.
3. Allow the liquid to drain and dry everything.
4. The greens are mixed with salt and compacted into jars.

Marinating - to preserve vitamins

Pickling is the best way to preserve all the beneficial substances in onions and give them a special taste. The pickled vegetable will be an excellent assistant for preparing various dishes, which will eliminate the additional waste of time. Small onions, unsuitable for storage in winter due to rapid drying, are suitable as the main ingredient for home preparation.

You can also add other vegetables to the jar, such as beets or carrots. And if you prepare apple marinade, the onions will have a more pronounced taste.

Ingredients for marinade filling:

• 6 percent bite - 5 liters;
• water - 4.5 liters;
• salt - 0.6 kg.

Spices:

• bay leaf - 10 grams;
• red pepper - 4 grams;
• star anise - 4 grams;
• cloves - 5 grams;
• red pepper - 4 grams;
• cinnamon - 5 grams;
• allspice - 5 grams.

For harvesting, 4 kilograms of small onions are used. They should be peeled and removed from any remaining roots.

To free the onion from the peel much faster, you need to immerse it in boiling water for three minutes and then pour cold water over it.

Onions peeled in this way must be kept in a water-salt solution with a ratio of water to salt of 1000:200 (ml/g).

When the marinade is ready, place the onions in clean, dry jars and fill them with the filling. After twenty minutes, the marinade must be poured back into the pan and boiled. The operation of pouring from the pan into the jars and back is performed two more times. Then the containers are rolled up using an iron lid and stored in a cool place.

Can you pickle green onions?

As a rule, it is recommended to freeze onions or any other greens. However, you can choose another option for preserving onion greens - pickling them in containers. Having chosen this method of preserving a healthy product, it can only be added during cooking.

Useful tips

For pickling, they take not only vinegar, but also lemon, mustard, and soy sauce . Each of these ingredients gives the product a completely different taste.

When drying onions in the fresh air, make sure that they do not become covered with mold - small black dots. This happens if the vegetable is left outside on a cool night or if it becomes saturated with moisture from the air after rain.

To get rid of bitterness, use the following methods:

• pour boiling water over the vegetables - a small part of the bitterness will come out;
• pour chopped turnips with water for 2 minutes;
• Blanch - this way the onion will lose its bitterness completely.

With vinegar

Vinegar gives snacks a unique bright sour taste that cannot be replaced with lemon or lime. In the following recipes, vinegar is used mainly for pickling onions, removing their bitterness.

With onions and green onions

Ingredients:

• medium-sized bulbs – 3 pcs.;
• green onions - a bunch;
• grape vinegar - 2 tbsp. l.;
• salt, ground pepper - to the taste of the cook.

The preparation is simple. Cut the onion into half rings. Add finely chopped green onions. Pour in vinegar. Add salt and ground pepper to taste. Stir. Let marinate for 4-5 minutes.

Nuance. If you use very bitter onions for a recipe, first scald the slices with boiling water and then use them in the salad.

With pickles

What to take:

• bulbs – 2 pcs.;
• pickled cucumbers – 4 pcs.;
• apple or grape vinegar - 2 tbsp. l.;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

Chop the onions and cucumbers as desired. Season with vinegar and add salt or pepper if desired. Stir. Everything is ready for tasting.

Beetroot with apple

Products:

• boiled beets – 1 pc.;
• onions – 2-3 pcs.;
• autumn apple – 1 pc.;
• green salad leaves;
• apple cider vinegar – 1 tsp;
• sugar - a pinch;
• salt - to taste.

Peel the boiled beets, onions and apples. Grind everything on a coarse grater or cut into thin strips. Season with vinegar, salt and sugar. In principle, the salad can already be eaten, but if desired, it is good to season it with sour cream or mayonnaise.

Storage Features

• In order for tasty and healthy preparations to retain all their qualities, they are kept in a cool place, observing the humidity regime. Jars that have not been sterilized last no more than 10 months at temperatures up to +2°C and humidity 90-92%.
• Pickled onions are ideally stored in the cellar, but if there is no such space in the apartment, use the bottom shelf in the refrigerator.
• In high-rise buildings, a closed balcony is equipped for placing the blockage, where the temperature does not fall below 0°C. The container is protected from direct sunlight.